


Tannin'

by maaaaa



Category: The Sentinel (TV)
Genre: M/M, Spanking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-17
Updated: 2020-04-17
Packaged: 2021-03-01 18:55:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 722
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23691949
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maaaaa/pseuds/maaaaa
Relationships: Jim Ellison/Blair Sandburg
Kudos: 13





	Tannin'

“His balls are bigger'n his brains.”

Jim was greeted with this astute observation as he joined the line of cowboys hunkered up alongside the corral. He hooked his right foot on the bottom rail, tipped his stetson back off his brow, and rested his crossed arms loosely on the top rail. He steadied his gaze on the bucking chute on the far side of the ring. Leaden-blue, dead-eyed aim zeroed in smack dab on the man struggling to find his seat on the back of 1500 pound arm jerker.

Jim didn't need to ask who was in the chute. He'd heard his partner's shaky voice since the moment he'd rode in a few minutes earlier. Blair was swearing at the bull, as well as his self-assessed ineptitude, between a choppy question and answer exchange with the wranglers handling the mulely as he cowboyed up.

“Shit.”

Jim's succinct remark drew a mixture of amused snorts and acquiescent guffaws from his fellow onlookers.

“He's wiry for a tenderfoot, I'll give him that.”

Hearing this comment, dubious praise from one of the flinty older cowboys, Jim closed his eyes for a moment and shook his head.

“It's not his foot's gonna be tender when I get done with him.”

Jim's comment, muttered under his breath low-pitched and scratchy, wasn't loud enough to be heard by anyone else. But it didn't need to be.

“Aw, 'ole Freckle's an honest bucker. He's a goodun for the kid to test his mettle.”

And with that comforting remark from Flinty ringing in Jim's ears, the chute's gate burst open. The bull exploded out, and in a blur lasting all of half a second, there was just enough time for Blair to kiss the bull once before being tossed in the air high enough to see daylight. He landed in an inelegant sprawl, face down in the loosely packed dirt.

Jim was up and over the fence in a heartbeat. A couple seasoned bullfighters already had Freckles shooed back into the holding pen by the time Jim got to Blair. He latched onto Blair's shirt collar and yanked him to his feet. He dusted off the seat of Blair's jeans with much more gusto than was needed for so little dirt.

“Hey! Leggo! Whad da hell?”

Blair held his nose, which was dripping blood. His indignation at the swats to his posterior bordered on outrage. Right up on until Jim spun him around and Blair saw who had assisted him to his feet. His voice changed quickly to a high-pitched squawk, punctuated with round eyed innocence.

“Uh, Jim? I thoud you were ridind the fence lined today?”

Blair's feeble attempt to justify his actions by so paltry an evasion was met at first by Jim's look of disbelieving, slack-jawed, narrow-eyed admonishment. But the look changed swiftly to one of concern when Jim saw blood.

Jim didn't say a word. His idea of a compassionate response was dragging Blair, still held tightly by the scruff of his neck, out of the corral and across the yard to the first aid station in the barn. It was only after he had Blair cleaned up and was satisfied that his nose wasn't broken, that Jim hugged him. Blair leaned into him and just held on.

“Thank god you're all right.”

The relief in Jim's heavily sighed assurance was tangible. They just stood there a while, hanging onto each other. It was Jim who spoke first.

“If you want a tanning, Blair, you know all you have to do is ask. Or least drop a less subtle hint.”

Blair chuckled. It was a nervous chuckle and Jim thought it said a lot about how little chance Blair knew he'd had that Jim wouldn't find out about the bull riding escapade.

Blair kept chuckling as Jim snagged a cast off length of leather flank strap and hauled him out of the barn and back to their trailer, which was situated well away from the bunk house.

Blair stopped chuckling eventually, once Jim put the strap to good use on his backside. Later on, he laid in Jim's arms in the afterglow of their lovemaking, his ass still pleasantly warm and toasty as Jim patted it in way of a gentle reminder.

But Blair had no intention of giving up trying his hand at bull riding.


End file.
